One exit off the Sarasota highway puts you in 80,000 acres of real, raw Florida wilderness

It’s 30 minutes from Sarasota’s beaches

Myakka River State Park sits about 30 minutes east of downtown Sarasota, spread across 37,000 acres of Sarasota and Manatee counties.

It ranks among Florida’s oldest and largest state parks, and the land around it belongs to a conservation zone called Myakka Island, more than 80,000 acres of protected ground in total.

You’ll find wetlands, prairies, hardwood hammocks, pinelands, two lakes and a winding tea-colored river. This is what Florida looked like before anyone started building on it, and the deeper you go, the wilder it gets.

A Chicago socialite’s cattle ranch became the park

The land you walk through today was once a cattle and swine ranch, much of it owned by the family of Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer.

In the 1930s, Florida bought more than 17,000 acres from the Palmer estate, and the Palmer sons gave about 1,920 more. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the roads, bridges and cabins during the Great Depression.

The park opened in 1941, and you can still sleep in the original CCC log cabins they put up nearly a century ago.

The tea-colored river earned a rare state title

The Myakka River runs about 66 miles, and 12 of them wind through the park.

In 1985, the Florida Legislature named it the state’s first and only Wild and Scenic River, a designation that protects 34 miles within Sarasota County from development.

The dark water gets its color from tannins that leach out of decaying leaves and vegetation.

Arching palms and live oaks hang over the banks, and the river holds fish, birds and reptiles you can spot from the shore.

Walk through a prairie found nowhere else on Earth

More than half the park is Florida dry prairie, a globally imperiled ecosystem that exists only in this state. Scientists call it the second most biodiverse ecosystem in North America.

Nothing here grows taller than about three feet, so you can see for miles in every direction. The Florida Park Service runs prescribed burns every two to three years to keep the prairie healthy.

Rare birds like the crested caracara and the Florida grasshopper sparrow depend on this flat, open ground to survive.

Alligators sun themselves on every bank and log

The American alligator is the animal you’ll see most, and Upper Myakka Lake is the best spot to find them. Walk the trails or drive the main park road and you’ll spot them stretched out on banks and logs along the water.

They are wild animals, not trained attractions, and Florida law says you stay at least 30 feet away. Feeding them is illegal.

Beyond the gators, the park holds bobcats, river otters, white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and turtles.

A 130-foot sinkhole where gators pile in to feed

Deep Hole sits near the southwest shore of Lower Myakka Lake, a natural sinkhole about 295 feet across and roughly 130 feet deep. When water levels drop, fish get trapped inside and alligators crowd in to feed.

The sinkhole lies within the park’s 7,500-acre Wilderness Preserve, and only 30 people per day can enter. You’ll hike a flat but exposed 4.4-mile round trip on a sandy road with almost no shade.

Permits go fast, so get to the ranger station early.

Climb North America’s first public treetop walkway

The Myakka Canopy Walkway hangs 25 feet above the forest floor, a 100-foot suspended wooden bridge through live oaks and cabbage palms.

At the far end, a 74-foot observation tower gives you panoramic views of the prairie, wetlands and river. The walkway opened in June 2000, the first public treetop trail on the continent.

Canopy scientist Dr. Margaret D. Lowman inspired the project, and the TREE Foundation, Friends of Myakka River and the Florida Park Service built it together as part of the William S. Boylston Nature Trail.

Spot roseate spoonbills and 100 other bird species

More than 100 bird species live in the park, and you can find them along the river, the lakes and the trails. Great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets and roseate spoonbills wade the shallows.

Limpkins, ospreys, sandhill cranes and wild turkeys move through the prairies and hammocks. Winter brings American white pelicans and black skimmers.

Swallow-tailed kites usually show up in late winter or early spring for breeding season, so the park looks different every time you come back.

Paddle a river that hasn’t changed in centuries

The Myakka River and its two lakes give you paddling through a landscape that looks the way it did hundreds of years ago. You can rent kayaks and canoes at the Myakka Outpost near Upper Myakka Lake.

Water levels shift with the seasons, though, and during the dry months you might need to portage through shallow stretches. That’s part of it.

You’re not on a manicured waterway here. You’re on a blackwater river where the banks belong to whatever is living on them.

Hit 39 miles of trails by foot, bike or horse

Close to 39 miles of marked hiking trails run through the park, including the Myakka Hiking Trail, a loop system built for day hikes and multi-day backpacking trips.

Six backcountry campsites sit along the loops, and you need to reserve them ahead of time. The seven-mile paved park road works well for cycling, with wildlife sightings at every curve.

Unpaved forest roads branch deep into the interior for off-road cyclists and bikepackers, and 12 miles of trails are open to horseback riding.

Sleep in a Depression-era cabin under the palms

The park has 90 campsites for tents, RVs and trailers spread across three campgrounds. Palmetto Ridge Campground gives you 42 RV sites with full hookups, including water, electric and sewer.

If you want something with more history, the CCC-built log cabins from the 1930s are still standing and still taking guests.

You can book campsites up to 11 months in advance through the Florida State Parks reservation system. The park stays open 365 days a year, 8 a.m. until sunset.

The main road runs seven miles at 15 mph for a reason

People call Myakka “the Real Florida,” and the pace proves it.

The main park road winds seven miles through shady hammocks, open marshes and along the lakeshore at 15 to 25 mph.

The Myakka Outpost, a family-run concessionaire here since 1982, rents bikes and kayaks and runs a cafe with camping supplies.

In 2025, a bill went to Congress to designate the Sarasota County stretch of the Myakka River as a National Wild and Scenic River, adding federal protection to decades of state conservation.

Visit Myakka River State Park in Florida

You’ll find the park at 13207 State Road 72 in Sarasota, about nine miles east of Interstate 75. The main south gate opens every day at 8 a.m. and closes at sunset.

The north gate only opens on Saturdays, Sundays and state holidays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the official website before you go, because trails and sections sometimes close for maintenance or weather.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Recreation and Parks manages the property.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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